


First Christmas

by Historical_Fangirl



Series: Crutchie and Jennie [2]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, F/M, Fluff, Romance, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21924805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Historical_Fangirl/pseuds/Historical_Fangirl
Summary: Crutchie and Jennie's first Christmas together is a joyous occasion, for both of them.
Relationships: Crutchie/Original Character(s)
Series: Crutchie and Jennie [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1167623
Kudos: 1





	First Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again, everyone! It's been a while since I posted anything Newsies-related on here, but I decided to participate in Newsies OC Week this year and write some more about Crutchie and Jennie (even though I originally said I wouldn't).
> 
> I hope everyone enjoys the first day's prompt!
> 
> Day 1: First Winter

_ December 1900 _

“Hey, Jennie? Where do ya want this?”

Jennie turned from the washtub to see Crutchie standing behind her, a basket full of laundry tucked under his arm. She smiled at him and pointed to a corner of the room where another basket already sat. “Just over there. Thank you, Charlie.”

“Anytime.” Crutchie wasn’t wearing his newsboy cap, but he tipped an imaginary one to her before leaving the room to continue with the rest of his chores for the evening. Jennie, in turn, went back to supervising the completion of the laundry.

After she had been working for a short while, Jennie felt someone tap her shoulder. One of the younger boys had snuck up on her, and he was carrying a small piece of paper in his hand.

“Crutchie asked if I could please give ya this, miss.”

“Oh!” Jennie said in realization. “Thank you… Sniper?”

“You’se welcome!” Sniper chirped back happily, clearly pleased that she had remembered his name. He handed the paper to her, then bounded away as Jennie opened it to reveal Crutchie’s familiar spidery handwriting.

_ Jennie, _

_ Meet me at the penthouse when you finish. _

_ Charlie _

Jennie’s cheeks flushed, and she quickly pocketed the note before anyone saw her with it. Her and Crutchie’s relationship wasn’t exactly a secret from the other boys (they were much more perceptive than she originally gave them credit for) but it was a secret from the Superintendent of the lodging house. If he were to find out Jennie would almost certainly lose her place, and Crutchie his. For this reason, Jennie and Crutchie did their best to employ discretion whenever they were together in public, and the boys did their best to keep their mouths shut.

However, this most certainly did not dampen Jennie’s excitement about her late-night meeting on the roof.

~   
  


The wind was blisteringly cold as Crutchie waited for Jennie on the rooftop. He shivered and wrapped his thin coat more tightly around his shoulders, bouncing up and down slightly in an attempt to keep his feet from freezing.

The clang of metal directed his attention to the ladder, which he could see Jennie climbing. Hurrying over to it he reached his hand out, pulling her up the rest of the way with ease.

“It’s not that I don’t want to see you, Charlie, but what exactly was so important that I have to freeze out here?” Jennie asked as she stood and pulled the thick shawl she was wearing closer around her.

“What, a guy can’t meet his girl for a secret moonlit rendezvous?” Crutchie asked with mock offense.

“That’s a fancy word.” Jennie took a step closer to Crutchie. “But you’d better not be implying anything disreputable, Charlie Morris. I’m not that sort of girl.”

“Definitely not,” Crutchie agreed. “But it wouldn’t do to have ya turn into an icicle neither.” He held out his arms to Jennie. She hesitated for only a moment, glancing toward the ladder, before gratefully allowing him to envelop her in a hug.

The pair was silent for several minutes as they stood on the rooftop, looking out at the city. It was only after a church bell chimed the hour that Jennie spoke. “It’s almost Christmas.”

“It is.” Crutchie nodded. “Ya first Christmas at the lodgin’ house.”

“Mmm.” Jennie hummed in acknowledgment. “My first Christmas serving a bunch of rowdy newsboys Christmas dinner.”

“It’s fun, though,” Crutchie said. “We get turkey, ham, pie… an’ all without havin’ to pay for it.” He smiled to himself. “Plus Race gives a speech every year.”

Jennie chuckled. “That certainly sounds like a spectacle.” 

“What about your family? What do they usually do?” Crutchie asked.

“Well… we go to Midnight Mass, of course.” Jennie looked out over the rooftops as she spoke, a fond smile tugging at her lips. “And on Christmas day, we give each other gifts. Nothing fancy, usually just oranges for the children. Maybe some penny candy. Then my mother cooks a big dinner, and we eat it all together in the evening.”

Crutchie gazed down at Jennie with soft eyes. “Sounds nice.”

“It is.” Jennie’s gaze wandered for a moment longer, then she tore her eyes away from the skyline with a shake of her head. “Come on, let’s get back inside before we catch our deaths.”

~

“Twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy…” Crutchie mumbled under his breath as he counted out coins in the palm of his hand.

“Hey, Crutchie!” Crutchie looked up to see Race enter the reading room and stride toward him, a cigar clutched in his hand like always.

“Hey, Race. Need somethin’?”

“Nah, just thought I’d say hello.” Race nodded at the coins Crutchie was holding with a smirk. “Fixin’ to run off to Santa Fe?”

Crutchie frowned. “What? No. Why would ya say that?”

“Jack used to do that, remember? Come back from sellin’ an’ get out that old cigar box he kept his money in to count it and see if he had enough to go yet.” Race smiled wistfully at the memory. “Once I got scared that he did, so I took a dollar from the box and hid it.”

“Really?” Crutchie asked incredulously. “You never told me that before.”

Race shrugged. “Didn’t seem important. An’ Jack knew because he found the money under my mattress a couple of days later. Made me give it back, an’ then promised me he’d never leave without at least sayin’ goodbye.”

Crutchie smiled as well. “Sounds just like him.”

“Yeah.” Race shook his head a little. “Anyway, if you ain’t gonna run off, why’re ya sittin’ here alone counting ya money like Ebenezer Scrooge?”

“I… I wanna buy Jennie somethin’ nice for Christmas,” Crutchie admitted. “I saw this brooch in the window of a shop a few days ago, an’ I thought it’d be perfect.” He looked down at his hands. “Is that stupid?”

“No, Crutch, it ain’t stupid,” Race said reassuringly, reaching over to ruffle Crutchie’s hair fondly. “She’ll love it.”

~

Christmas day dawned cold and clear, and the lodging house was abuzz with activity.

Hundreds of boys crowded into the dining room, passing food back and forth and talking a mile a minute. As promised, Race gave a rousing speech, congratulating everyone on a year well spent and toasting to a prosperous New Year.

Crutchie enjoyed himself, although there was a bittersweet tinge to the event. It was the first year Jack hadn’t attended since he became a newsie. Crutchie supposed it made sense, Jack was now officially an adult and had a good-paying job as a cartoonist and a beautiful girlfriend. Of course, he would eat Christmas dinner with her.

The dinner lasted late into the night, and afterward, there was quite a mess to be cleaned up. Crutchie helped Jennie and the other servants, partly because it was the right thing to do and partly because he wanted time for a moment alone with Jennie.

Almost as soon as the last plate was washed and put away, Crutchie grabbed Jennie by the hand and pulled her into the bunkroom. Most of the boys had gone out after dinner, either to see family or friends, get drunk, or (in the case of Race) both.

“Didja have a good Christmas?” Crutchie asked Jennie as they sat on his bed.

“Yes,” Jennie replied. “Did you?”

“Yeah, I did.” Crutchie nodded. Then he reached under his pillow, producing a small box wrapped in red paper. He handed it to Jennie with a smile. “I gotcha a little somethin’. Merry Christmas.”

“Oh, Charlie. You didn’t have to,” Jennie protested.

“Yes, I did. What kinda man doesn’t give his girl a Christmas present?” Crutchie tapped the box gently. “Come on, open it.”

Jennie needed no further urging. She carefully removed the wrapping from the package and opened the box to reveal a delicate silver brooch designed to look like two hearts intertwined.

“It’s beautiful,” Jennie murmured, cradling it carefully in her hands.

“It is.” Crutchie leaned in closer to Jennie. “But it ain’t as beautiful as you.”

Jennie blushed prettily, then pinned the brooch on her dress at her throat. It sparkled in the glow of the lights, and Crutchie found himself speechless at how wonderful she looked.

“I have something for you, too,” Jennie revealed suddenly. She pulled a small rectangular package out of her pocket. “No protests.”

Crutchie took the gift without comment, pulling the white paper it was wrapped in off and grinning when he saw that Jennie had given him a book, bound in blue cloth.

“Black Beauty,” he read off of the book’s spine.

“I know you like reading, but you don’t have much to read besides the headlines so I thought you’d like it,” Jennie explained.

“It’s perfect,” Crutchie said gratefully. “Thank you, Jennie.”

“You’re welcome, Charlie.”

Jennie and Crutchie stared at each other for a moment longer, their eyes sparkling with happiness until somehow they ended up with their lips pressed together in a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> The Superintendent of the lodging house at the time Newsies takes place was named Rudolph Heig. He and his wife and children lived at the lodging house with the boys from 1887 to 1910, supervising the day-to-day running of it. They were well-loved by the newsboys, but I still can't imagine that the Superintendent would have been very happy to hear of a newsboy and one of the servants being in a relationship, hence Crutchie and Jennie's attempts to be discreet.
> 
> Laundry day at the lodging house was Monday, and the boys were all required to help out.
> 
> Crutchie and Jennie's gifts to each other were both taken from an 1898 Sears & Roebuck catalog.
> 
> I hope everyone enjoyed this story. Please leave feedback in the form of comments and kudos, and tell me what you thought of this. I will be back tomorrow!


End file.
